Weather channel describes how deadly Hurricane Milton will be through ‘insane’ CGI
Hurricane Milton rapidly escalated from Category 1 to 5 in 10 hours, threatening Florida with destructive winds and storm surges.
After a day of rapid intensification, Hurricane Milton surged from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in just 10 hours on Monday, continuing its destructive path toward Florida on Tuesday. With the potential to unleash life-threatening winds and storm surges along the state's west coast.
How strong will Hurricane Milton be?
The Weather Channel illustrated the immensity of Hurricane Miton through a smart CGI simulated video that clearly shows the deadly nature of the 15-foot storm surge in certain areas on the western coast of Florida.
While standing on the newsroom podium, the host narrates, “Imagine 3 feet of storm surge right here,” while the intricate 3d work shows the water level in the background, respective to cars, houses, trees and street posts. “Now if this amount of water catches you by surprise it's too late to evacuate,” he continued.
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“Cars are floating around in flooding waves; there are large objects in here that could knock things down with a battering ram-like force.”
They host went to showing their 3d prowess along with the warning, “Imagine 6-feet, now this completely floods out first floors of homes and business and only way to escape that is to move to the higher ground.”
“Now, imagine 9 feet or beyond of flooding a vindication. This is practically not survivable, so please follow this advice of the local authorities.”
Netizens are going ‘insane’ with this level of journalism
Seeing the video, netizens were quick to chime in, one posted, “The 3D artists at the weather channel deserve a raise for this insane visual,” while another wrote, “Insane graphics. Thoughts and prayers for Florida and others.”
The timing of Milton’s landfall is late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
At its peak strength, Milton’s sustained winds reached an astonishing 180 mph, with a central pressure of 897mb, making it the fifth lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. Only four other storms — Wilma in 2005, Gilbert in 1988, the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, and Rita in 2005 — have recorded lower pressures. Now, Milton is heading directly toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, expected to make landfall late Wednesday night.
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The storm's maximum sustained winds have increased by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period. At one point, the storm's winds surged by 70 mph, far surpassing the threshold for rapid intensification in under 12 hours. Although Milton briefly weakened to a Category 4 storm on Tuesday afternoon, it quickly restrengthened, reaching Category 5 status again with sustained winds of 160 mph as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.